Spring 2023 Newsletter

Colorado College Environmental Studies and Science

We are heading to a close of the 2022-2023 year - and it was a great one! We had some wonderful winter and spring field trips around the state, inspiring speakers and events, we hired new faculty to our ever-growing department, welcomed some new EV babies into the family, our hard-working seniors presented their theses, and found out our past three EV paraproffessionals were each awarded the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship funding for their PhDs. Lots to be proud of this year and lots to look forward to! Thanks again and again for everyone's support and involvement in the program. Scroll down to get the deets!

Department Updates

Welcome New Science Faculty Member, Allison Lawman

I am a climate scientist fascinated by the Earth’s long climate history and how it may change in the future. I am originally from New Hampshire and then attended Brown University, where I earned a Bachelor of Science in Geology-Chemistry. I received my Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin before becoming a postdoctoral researcher at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder and NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information.

I use climate model simulations, geological records of past environmental conditions, and observational data to investigate the range of past, present, and future climate variability and change and its global impacts. I am especially interested in the tropical oceans because they are powerful drivers of temperature and rainfall extremes worldwide, affecting nearly all sectors of society. One aspect of my research uses natural recorders of climate variability such as corals to extend our understanding of tropical climate far beyond the instrumental record. These records of past climate help contextualize present and future climate change and validate the climate models that simulate the future.

I am thrilled to be joining the faculty at Colorado College! I am excited to bring my enthusiasm and expertise to the Environmental Program, and look forward to teaching, supporting, and mentoring students. I look forward to teaching Introduction to Global Climate Change and Atmospheric Dynamics, and developing new courses in oceanography, climate science, and climate modeling/scientific computing. I am also eager to work with student researchers interested in past, present, and future climate.

As someone who loves the state of Colorado and its beautiful landscapes, I am excited to make Colorado Springs my permanent home. Colorado is an amazing hub for climate science research and an ideal place to expose students to a wide variety of opportunities. I look forward to the journey ahead!

Allison will be starting at CC in the Fall of 2023

Spring Linnemann Lecturer: Meriwether Hardie '09

"Communities, Food Systems, and Conservation: Learnings from working with land and people around the globe"

Immediately following Meriwether Hardie’s graduation from CC, she traveled to Argentina on a journalism fellowship, bought a horse for $200, and rode from southern Patagonia to Bolivia to report on this swiftly changing landscape, specifically the competition between traditional agricultural practices and modern land conservation techniques. In the years since, Meriwether has continued to dedicate her work to the question of - how do we keep working landscapes working? From reintroducing beavers to sheep range land in Idaho, to the failing dairy industry in Vermont, to cattle ranching in Hawaii, Meriwether works in places of tension (and opportunity!) in the worlds of conservation, food systems, and communities. These worlds often feel at odds with each other, yet Meriwether believes that they are intimately intertwined, especially when provided with the right resources. During Meriwether’s talk she will share case studies, stories, mistakes, and successes from her experience of working with people and land.

Thank you to the Linnemann Family for making these experiences possible!

Watch the Rest Here!

Slade Fund Provides Unique Learning Opportunities

The Slade Fund has generously continued to support teaching and learning organized around the concept of environmental sustainability. Click through to read about it!

Professor Jean Lee highlights how the Slade funds allowed students taking a summer course to go on field trips that examined what community-based natural resource management looks like in practice. The students in this summer course really appreciated the opportunity for field trips since many of them did not have cars on campus, so the field trips, in addition to providing real-life examples of the things they were reading about, also provided them with a way to get off of campus during the week.

Slade funds also enabled them to build a stronger classroom community in multiple classes; students were able to gather around food and use food as a avenue to have conversations around some of the concepts that we were learning in class (e.g. discussions on food access and sovereignty, Indigenous land rights and their intersection with food and identity, etc).

Professor Mike Angstadt says he was grateful to receive Slade funding to support EV356, Global Environmental Policy. Global Environmental Policy is one of his very favorite courses to teach at CC because it provides space to highlight the challenges and opportunities in negotiating, pursuing, and implementing complex environmental issues in many venues, including non-state and more local settings. This year, thanks to Slade funds, he brought a full class of 26 students to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo.

There, the students engaged with those who use their work at the zoo to advance global conservation policy and to network with other zoos to create a refuge of genetic diversity that can support the health of wild animal populations. They also engaged with a staff member of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, a nongovernmental organization which helps landowners and corporations to balance habitat and conservation needs with economic imperatives in global palm oil production.

To continue supporting EV students, research, field trips and all other good things, donate at the link below! When choosing a Designation, navigate to 'Departments' and then select 'EV Sciences Department Discretionary Fund'.

Donate to EV!

New EV Science Paraprofessional Nicole Chavarria

A little bit about Nicole!

She was born in Washington D.C. and went to school in Silver Spring, MD
Nicole is interested in water quality research and learning about drones.
Her favorite moment in the EV department was the field trips, especially in Snow Ecology.
Nicole is most excited to continue learning in this position and get involved with the department on cool projects!

Nicole has had immense experience working and engaging with community in sustainability and environmental justice such as local program Food to Power; she co-founded the Delta Xi Nu Multicultural Sorority, Inc.; she was co-chair of SOMOS where she organizes cultural events such as the Latina Feria; Nicole has tutored students and served on community councils; she also has strong research experience in environmental chemistry!

Nicole will be starting as Paraprof in the Fall of 2023. We can't wait to see all you bring to the Program Nicole!

Congratulations Professor Jean Lee on your new baby!

Welcome Cora to the EV fam! She was born April 18th here in Colorado Springs

Spring Semester Highlights

Atmospheric Chemistry Field Trip to Steamboat Springs

Click through to read about the trip!

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This year, Professor Lynne Gratz was awarded a $40,000 grant to pursue her research at Storm Peak Lab in Steamboat Springs in collaboration with Colorado College students

The Storm Peak Laboratory is situated on a 70 km long north-south mountain barrier, oriented generally perpendicular to the prevailing westerly winds. SPL is approximately 1150 m above, and to the east of the agricultural Yampa Valley, and the town of Steamboat Springs, CO.

Gratz used this money in part to build a week long field trip to Storm Peak Lab with her 16-person upper level Atmospheric Chemistry Class

Students traveled up to the lab each morning, where they learned about instrumentation, data collection, atmospheric patterns, snow, findings the lab has produced, and current projects

Students also skied and snowshoed around the mountain to collect their own ozone, carbon dioxide and aerosol data.

They then used either data they personally collected or longer-term Storm Peak data to formulate their own research projects, which they presented to the lab faculty and other students at the university of Utah in atmospheric sciences.

Lynne Gratz and Utah professor/director of Storm Peak Lab, Gannet Hallar gave a public presentation in the town of Steamboat Springs about the use of Storm Peak Lab, and their research over the years. Hallar specializes in aerosols, while Gratz provided her expertise in mercury gas for a very interesting talk about how these atmospheric components are changing and their implications on communities worldwide.

Intro to Global Climate Change Field Trip to CC's Baca Campus in the San Luis Valley

Block 7, Henry Fricke took his EV128 class to Baca for a 3-day excursion to investigate the historic and constant environmental processes happening around us. We stopped along the Arkansas River in Pueblo lined with melon farms, followed the Cucharras River up to its headwaters, picked out the beetle infected trees on the way back down, identified igneous rocks along the highway, breathed in (too many) aerosols flying across the San Luis Valley, imagined Lake Alamosa filling the same valley 450,000 years ago, listened the migrating birds sing in the remaining wetlands, spoke with potato farmers about how they too have watched their land rapidly dry even within the last decade, slid down the sand dunes tucked into the corner of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, viewed glacial valleys from both satellite imagery and then on the ground as we made our way back north, and admired petrified redwoods and aquatic fossils in Florissant that have since been replaced by classic Colorado grasslands, pine trees, and grasshoppers.

Alumni

This year, our past three EV paraprofessionals - Arielle Link '19, Riley Wadehra '20, and Evan Foster '21, were all awarded the National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) funding in pursuing their PhDs! The very competitive GRFP recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students who are pursuing research-based master’s and doctoral degrees in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and STEM education fields within NSF’s mission. The GRFP provides up to three years of support for the graduate education of individuals who have demonstrated their potential for significant achievements in science and engineering research. The GRFP supports over 100 subfields. Congrats Arielle, Riley and Evan!

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Arielle Link

My broader dissertation here at University of Wisconsin, Madison is focused on nutrient dynamics and ecosystem structure and function in developing (>40 yrs) postfire lodgepole pine forests. I get to do all of my fieldwork out in Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks even though I go to school in Wisconsin! The GRFP will help support my work on understanding how the genetic diversity of microorganisms that facilitate ecosystem nutrient cycling changes over space and time.

I am immensely grateful for the opportunity to help facilitate such a breadth of upper-level environmental science courses while the EV paraprof. The position helped me learn that I am adept at quickly learning and implementing new protocols in the lab and field, and can operate calmly when plans fail and we need to pivot to plan B. I do a lot of fieldwork for my research and am camping and hiking around the Tetons all summer with undergrads. Being a paraprof helped prepare me to lead in a field setting, and taught me how to grocery shop for dozens of people!

Riley Wadehra

I’m in my second year of my PhD in the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology department at Yale, working with Carla Staver. I study the relationship between weather/climate, vegetation, and fire behavior, particularly in tropical savannas (but I also do some work globally). Savannas are awesome because they experience the most fire annually of all biomes, and they can also be maintained as stable ecosystems by these fire disturbances. I also get to do field work in Kruger National Park, South Africa, which is so exciting.

I’m done with classes and teaching requirements, but if interesting classes pop up we’re encouraged to take them. I’m actually finishing up a scientific writing class this semester which has been incredibly helpful. I’m hoping to take my candidacy exam soon!

I think the paraprof position helped me gain a better sense of what it’s like to live and work in a college/university setting when you’re not an undergrad anymore, but then again, it was fully covid so times were very different. Still, I love working with students and was a QRC tutor as well, so being paraprof let me continue to engage with students. I think that’s been a highlight of all these different roles and CC definitely prepared me to be a TA here.

Evan Foster

I feel immensely blessed to have been awarded the GRFP before I begin my PhD in the Biological Sciences program at the University of Notre Dame this fall, where I plan to conduct research on savannah plant community ecology at Mpala Research Center in Kenya and across East Africa. While I intend to enter my PhD with an open mind as I familiarize myself with the literature and formulate my own questions, I am principally interested in understanding how species interactions and global environmental change individually and collectively influence plant community composition. The Graduate Research Fellowship provides me with an incredible foundation at the start of my PhD to pursue my research interests and prepare for a career in academia, and it builds off of a five-year institution fellowship I received at Notre Dame to provide me financial freedom and security for my entire PhD.

My time as the EV Paraprof in the 2021-22 Academic Year played an instrumental part in bolstering my applications for graduate school and the GRFP this cycle. I was fortunate to have had numerous research projects as an undergraduate at CC, including a first-author publication, but the EV paraprof position made me a well-rounded applicant with previous experience in more aspects of life as a graduate student. In many ways, the paraprof position can serve as a trial for graduate school (e.g. TA responsibilities, preparation and supervision of both fieldwork and lab work, and serving as the bridge between students and faculty within the department), and pointing to those experiences in both applications and interviews certainly improved my admission chances.

The position also gave me the confidence in knowing I wanted to pursue a PhD and a career in academia, as I realized I love teaching as much as I do research. This insight helped me find labs and PhD opportunities that were the best fit for my research interests and career goals. Serving as a paraprofessional is a highly unique and special job opportunity after graduation, and I believe it is one of the best professional development opportunities that CC offers, particularly for students considering a career in academia.

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